Well, it may be just a buzz word for some, but they don't call OZ The Lucky Country for nothing.
As the World rotates continuously and things change.....continuously.......nothing will be as it was 20 years ago.....50 years ago or a couple of centuries ago......you have to go with the flow and if you are wise and clever you roll with the punches and come up smelling of roses........my philosophy always.
In no way can OZ consider itself a World initiator of anything that the rest of the World has already done and learned the hard way not to do it that way again.
I have to think that if you compare OZ to the States or UK or France and Germany to say a few, you will find that they have more problems than a barrel of monkeys going downhill.
About 3 years back the OZ dollar was at parity with the US dollar......where did that get us.....all foreign imports were cheaper so we bought foreign made goods.....the problem was the exports fell off because the small export trade cost to a foreign country was relatively high and no one wanted to come as tourists to a country that converted their money to less than before.
If the OZ dollar fell to 50% US$.....that, for a small trading country like us, would be a blessing in disguise as all our small time exports would be cost effective to any country that wanted them and that means the export trade would take off.
The other side of the coin is that we don't need to import to make things as we're not a converter country per se like UK or Japan etc.....we have plenty of raw materials that will last for hundreds of years to come, and with the boom in sustainable energy putting the power stations out that is another asset to the pile.
Until the Government taxes all solar power panel output like they do with cars, the energy from solar especially roof top ones will put the sustainable factor in the hands of those who invest in it and not the Government.
I think you can look at any sustainable energy production from domestic sources as an income and so taxable eventually.
The Government is quite capable of passing a law to create a new tax for solar panel output once the energy production from coal falls off so far it's won't be viable and only as an export commodity.
It's a fact that the rain that falls from the sky is free and gets collected in dams to be supplied to households and then charged to them by the mega litre.......the sunlight that falls on solar panels is also free but for how long?
The people as a group will not be able to prevent the Government from taxing the solar output as it's a plum ripe for the picking, and would be considered as the needs of the many exceed the needs of the few etc.......is this the brave new world they speak of?
I get the distinct feeling that the rebate that people with solar panels get is a Sprat to catch the Mackerel and will soon be taxed as all else is taxed.
BTW, this is comparable to a machinist's wages that are hard earned but are taxed by the Government.....the more you earn the more tax you pay.
Ian.